Father's Day

Okay, so I somehow got this idea from watching "Those Are The Strings, Pinocchio" and I'm not sure why. I think it comes from the next part, it inspired that one and then I got the whole idea. This is a series (four parts) of Father's Days in Luke's life. Each one is a little vignette, a little scene from that Father's Day. There's an emphasis on Luke and whoever, but Lorelai also appears in all of them. Wanted to get this out of my head before finals begin, and once summer starts I want to do a little post finale stuff, but I'm not sure where exactly I'm going with that yet, so I did this for now. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of them, unfortunately

2005

Lorelai was sitting at the kitchen table, flipping through a magazine when Luke knocked on her back door. She knew it was him, as he had been in the garage working on the boat. She rolled her eyes and sighed, going over to the door.

"You don't need to knock," she reminded him as she pulled the door open. She waved her left hand at him. "See? Engaged. You're allowed to just walk in now. In fact, you were allowed to just walk in before. I seriously hope you still won't be knocking on our door when we're married…"

"Come here," he said, taking her hand that was still in the air and pulling her out the door.

"What?" she asked as she let him lead her out to the garage. He stopped in front of the garage and gestured to the boat.

She looked at it for a moment then looked at him. "It's finished," she guessed, but mostly stated.

He nodded. "It's finished," he told her.

She looked at the boat for a moment, stepping inside the garage a few more feet and he matched her steps. "It looks great, Luke. You did a great job."

He shrugged. "Thanks."

"Your father would be proud of it," she said quietly.

He shrugged. "Either that or he would tell me I was a fool for wasting all my time finishing it."

She laughed and looked at him. "It really does look great."

"Well, it's a wonder what you can do when the boating supply place actually has the supplies."

She laughed. "Imagine that."

"Thanks."

She looked at him curiously. "For what?"

"You know," he said, gesturing towards the boat.

She frowned, still not getting it. "Thanks for the boat?" she asked, confused. Suddenly, it hit her what he was trying to say. "Oh," she said softly. "Thanks for the boat," she repeated, with realization. "You're welcome," she said.

"It's just that... now that it's finished, I'm glad I finally got up the nerve to touch it and work on it. And then I realize that before I got around to working on it, I had requested to have it trashed, well, I'm just glad that someone didn't let that happen."

"I'm glad you feel that way," she said. "I mean, after your initial reaction, I was afraid I'd really done the wrong thing."

"You didn't," he assured her. "You know me well enough to know I would regret getting rid of the boat someday. And you're right, I would have."

She smiled. "Hey, if I don't know you by now it ain't gonna happen. Just took me a while to get you down to a science since you try and keep your true personality hidden from the world."

"I never thought this boat would become anything," he stated. "I thought it would just sit unfinished until the end of time. Until someone finally decided to trash it."

"Like you?" she teased.

"My dad stopped working on it when my mom died," he stated. Lorelai looked at him in surprise. This was one of those hardly ever ventured into areas-- his parents.

"So it's sat unfinished since you were eight," Lorelai stated. "I mean, until you started working on it."

He nodded. "Yeah. And I just never thought about touching it, because it seemed wrong somehow." She nodded in understanding. "But then something just propelled me to finish it. Like it would somehow be honoring both my parents if I finished it."

She smiled. "You know what today is?" she asked softly.

He frowned. "No… what?"

"It's Father's Day," she told him quietly. "You didn't know that?"

He shrugged. "Didn't cross my mind. I'm not a father, I don't have a father, so…"

She smiled. "I think your dad is enjoying his gift. After all these years, to see the boat finished."

He smiled a little. "Yeah," he said softly. She put her arm around his waist and smiled.

"He'd be proud of you."

"For the boat?"

"Well, yeah. But for everything."

Luke scoffed. "Nah, I haven't done anything special."

"Oh, don't be modest. You're an amazing guy. He'd be so proud of the man you turned out to be. Your work ethics, how you care about everyone in this crazy town, the way you respect his memory at the diner, everything you do for Liz, taking Jess in, how loyal you are to your family, being there for a crazy single mom and her daughter all those years."

He turned to look at her and shrugged. "Maybe."

"I wish I knew your dad," she said. "I mean, I bet he was just as great as you. You had to learn it somewhere."

"He would have liked you," he told her.

"Really?"

"Yeah." Lorelai walked into the garage to take a closer look at the boat. She stopped short when she noticed the name.

"You didn't."

He smiled at her. "I did."

"Oh my God, Luke," she said, "You didn't have to do that."

"But I did," he clarified. "You know, this was my dad's boat. You know why he wanted to build it? For my mom. My mom loved the sea and everything about it. That's why he stopped when she died. So finishing the boat, it was like honoring both my father and my mother. And you are the one who forced me to finish it. This way, it has a piece of everyone who is important to me. My dad started it, for my mom, I finished it, and it's named after you… and Rory."

She shook her head, looking at him with tears in her eyes. "See? There is no way your dad could not be amazed with how you turned out."

He shrugged. "A Lorelei, with an e at the end, not an a, is a siren. Did you know that?"

She laughed softly. "I think I've heard it before."

"It's, and I quote, 'a siren of Germanic legend whose singing lures Rhine River boatmen to destruction on a reef,'" he told her. "I thought of naming it 'The Lorelei' with the e, to play on that, but you'd know it was after you. But then I decided that 'The Lorelai,' with the a, was more after you and a play on the Lorelei with the e." He frowned. "If that makes sense."

She laughed. "I get it."

"And by the way, the definition of Lorelei is perfect for you."

She let her jaw drop as if she was shocked. "Are you saying I lure boatmen to destruction?"

"You're definitely capable of it."

She laughed, then walked over to him and threw her arms around him. "I love you."

He rubbed her back slowly. "I love you too."

"Do you ever visit?" she asked, pulling away from his hug.

"What? Who?"

"Your Dad. Your Mom. Your parents."

"Oh," he realized. "Sometimes. I used to go regularly. My dad always took Liz and I after my mom died. After he died I would go once in a while, his birthday, father's day, whenever," he said. "But a lot of the time Liz would come, too. Once she had Jess and life took off for her and she was never around it was just me. After a while of doing that it wasn't too pleasant, being there alone. Especially on Mother's Day or Father's Day when a lot of other people would be around too, and you know how I feel about crowds."

She squeezed his hand. "You don't have to go alone anymore," she told him pointedly. He smiled at her and put his arm around her. "Just say the word and we'll go."

"You don't have to do that," he told her.

"I want to," she said. "For you. And I want to know them."

He smiled. "You're pretty amazing yourself, you know that?"

She shrugged. "I have to keep up with you." He laughed and kissed her on the head. "Happy Father's Day William Danes," she whispered into the garage. She gave his hand another squeeze.

"Happy Father's Day," Luke added. Lorelai smiled at him and they walked out of the garage.

"Hey, so can we take it out soon?"

He frowned. "Into the water?"

"Isn't that where you take boats?"

"As long as you promise not to lure us to destruction on a reef."

She laughed and put her arms around him, kissing beneath his ear. "Well then can I lure you upstairs to my bedroom instead?" she whispered in his ear.

He pulled back slightly to look at her. "You could give it a try."

She laughed. "Come on, I'll show you some destruction," she said, raising her eyebrows and pulling him towards the house.

He rolled his eyes knowing that she had no idea what she was talking about anymore and let her pull him inside.

Part 2 is probably going to be posted right after this, as well as part 3. But part 4 isn't finished yet, so that may take a while longer. Thanks for reading!